Man from Webster County Sentenced for Sexual Misconduct of a Child

Judges from both Webster and Laclede counties sentenced a man to time in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in 2018.

Benjamin Blake was charged with sexual misconduct involving a child after the child told police in Lebanon that he had assaulted her on two separate occasions in the summer of 2018.

He will serve four years in prison combined for his crimes.

Investigators say Blake met the girl at a rally for a church the two shared and began dating shortly after.

At the time they began the relationship, the child was 14 and Blake was 18.